Snow Camp man keeps ties to community

Thursday

Sep 27, 2012 at 12:01 AMSep 27, 2012 at 12:33 AM

Jake Mann / Times-News correspondent

SNOW CAMP — Sports has been an integral part of Floyd Wicker’s life, particularly baseball. He loves the sport. Baseball has served him well, and it has given him a lot of memories and stories that can easily be recalled.

“I love baseball,” Wicker said earlier this week. “It’s something that stays with you, and you can’t get it out of your blood.”

Wicker, who recently turned 70, is a former major league player, and is one of four men with area ties who’ll be honored with Distinguish Service in Sports Awards from the Alamance County Sports Development Council at a luncheon Friday.

“I’m thrilled and happy to be honored,” Wicker said. “It’s nice to know that someone out there thinks of me that highly.”

Wicker played professional baseball from 1961-71, missing two years because of military service. Before heading to the professional ranks, he was a member of the 1961 East Carolina team that became the NAIA national champions. He was the only freshman on the team, at age 17, and then signed with the St. Louis Cardinals after only one year of college.

Wicker was an outfielder in the major leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals, Montreal Expos, Milwaukee Brewers, and San Francisco Giants. His only full season was in 1969 with the Expos. Wicker spent the next three years in and out of major league baseball, and finished his professional career in 1971.

“When I finished playing professionally, there was definitely a hole in my life,” Wicker said. “I felt like I had one more year in me. Even now, I still miss it.”

Even though Wicker stopped playing, he never left the game. He started helping with the Southern Alamance High School and Middle School baseball teams. Wicker even coached some in the 1980s, aiding the Alamance County American Legion team.

“I still enjoyed baseball. By helping out, I wanted to teach kids about the game, and the fundamentals,” Wicker said.

Wicker not only served and connected with southern Alamance County, he also promoted it. In the summer of 2009, he and Monroe McVey traveled to Wilson, heading the effort to have the 1914 and 1915 Sylvan High School baseball teams recognized on a statewide basis.

The Sylvan teams won back-to-back state titles, and didn’t lose a single game in those two seasons. Wilson was opening the North Carolina Baseball Museum, and Wicker and McVey believed the teams’ history belonged. The museum accepted the material.

“As a booster of the museum, I thought it was important,” Wicker said when asked about why he wanted the N.C. Baseball Museum’s acknowledgment of Sylvan’s accolades. “I knew some of the ancestors of some of the players.”

Wicker also has some of his personal items in the museum. Along with a photo of the 1961 East Carolina championship team, Wicker has donated other photos, baseball cards, and a signed baseball bat.

In 2005, he retired after 33 years with the U.S. Postal Service. Wicker likes to spend time at Snow Camp’s Sourwood Forest Golf Course, where he works part-time, and occasionally plays a round.

But, he still gets excited when baseball season starts approaching. “Even to this day, when spring rolls around, I feel like a kid again when spring training is here.”

Other recipients Friday at the awards luncheon at Alamance Country Club are longtime broadcaster Woody Durham, former recreation coach Douglas Moore Sr., and retired college football coach Shirley “Red” Wilson will be recipients of Distinguished Service in Sports awards at the Alamance Country Club.